SEARCHER • The Millennium Issue
	Volume 8, No. 1 • January 2000

“And Now, a Word from Our Sponsor”
Steve Coffman presents a collection of alternative funding options for libraries, focusing on fee-based services as well as formats modeled after PBS fundraising techniques and bookstores.  [Page 51]

The Answer Machine
What if you could have a retrieval system that could provide information about anything, from the mundane to the mercurial as close as your hard drive? Sue Feldman looks at how far technology’s come, and how much further it needs to go, before her vision becomes a reality.  [Page 58]

Web-Only Extra! • Y1K

Timelines to the Future: Three Movers and Shakers Point the Way
Super searcher Reva Basch, Factiva president and CEO Tim Andrews, and Clifford Lynch, executive director of the Coalition for Networked Information, peer into the information industry mists and predict what lies ahead in the next 20 years. [Page 80]

Millennial Angst and Searchers
Steve Arnold dares to deal with the technology hotspots that could stymie info pros who aren’t prepared for the challenges: connectivity; networking; structured documents; and real-time content creation. [Page 90]

Who Do We Think We Are?
Mary-Ellen Mort performs a self-exam on the library profession and tells why it’s time to evolve from gatekeepers into information partners.  [Page 90]
 

COLUMNS

Searcher's Voice
As the 21st century kicks off, bq shares her “Millennium Wish List” for the searcher and library community.
[Page 6]

Web-Only Extra! • Oops!

Tools of the Trade
Multi-task communication stations, Web point and click, multi-player online gaming, and more are here for the asking, says Dave Rensberger. [Page 10]

The Better Mousetrap
Nancy Lambert reviews the scientific and technical breakthroughs of this century and previews, along with a group of sci-tech colleagues, what is to come in the next. [Page 24]

Internet Express
In a special “two-for-one” deal, Irene McDermott and Laura Gordon-Murnane each tackle a millennium subject. Irene looks at Web sites dealing with the end of the century — or the end of the world, while Laura reports on available portals and governmental Y2K resources. [Page 40]

Web Wise Ways
Amelia Kassel looks at what could happen to the searcher community if an old-time supermarket service were to vanish into cyberspace after the clock strikes 12:01 A.M. come January 1, 2000. [Page 104]

Emmerce
Lysbeth Chuck, asserting that e-commerce, abetted by the Internet, is bringing about daily economic changes, enters the world of electronic daytrading. [Page 108]

Webmastery
Gary Price assesses the top 12 myths, misunderstandings, and misconceptions about the Internet. [Page 113]

Web-Only Extra! • Gems of Wisdom

The Virtual Academy
Amy Kautzman weighs in on how the Internet has affected her role as a reference librarian and throws a few punches at the wasteland of library catalogs and other technological problems.  [Page 117]

Leading Libraries
Doris Helfer summarizes 3 years of lessons learned while glimpsing into the future of library and information services.  [Page 120]

Canada and Beyond
Ulla de Stricker offers her personal reflections of a life dedicated to library services and predictions about the library profession on the cusp.  [Page 124]

Premier(e) Books
From the upcoming ASLIB publication I in the Sky: Visions of the Information Future, read the chapter by Searcher’s own bq, “Marchers in Time.” [Page 127]
 

DEPARTMENTS

Contacts [Page 132]

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